Mohammed Kudus is starting to look like the superstar in waiting many of us believed him to be when he arrived at the club after scoring a magical fourth goal of his career at the club
Having collected a quite magnificent pass from Nayef Aguerd it took one tough from him before slotting a great goal past Arsenal keeper Aaron Ramsdale into the bottom corner.
His entire performance however was of the highest quality although that may have been the standout moment and again – as he did against Newcastle – converted his effort at a vitally important time.
During the game he demonstrated that he can be a very big player when the team press rather than counter attack with runs on the turn which create great menace to opposition defences.
He, Bowen and Paqueta were clearly the big three as we strode into the quarter finals of the Carabao Cup and a confrontation with Liverpool at Anfield.
And afterwards he told West Ham TV: “It was a very important victory. The past week had been very difficult for us, so to win and to win big and to get some balls in the net was important.
“Of course, we knew we were playing a very good side, so we knew we had to be tactically disciplined and very strong defensively. You could see we had to defend a lot because they had a lot of the ball, but we were still effective with the part of the ball that we had.
“We had to be very compact and I think we did that pretty well and we took the chances we got.
“We’ve been putting a lot of effort into it in training, so it was good to see it work. There is a new game coming up and we will put this one aside and focus on the weekend.”
“As forward players, you want to get the ball in the net and you also want to entertain the fans, so that’s what I’m here to do. Thanks to the fans for their support. It’s been amazing, and even when it’s not going well, they are still pushing and giving us energy.
“From the start of the competition, we’ve been dreaming because winning a title is part of it. We don’t know who we’ll get, but we’ll take it one step at a time and game-by-game.
“This is a very good boost for the game coming up at the weekend.”
For me , the man of the match was Coufal: tackling, intercepting, moving the ball upfield and very disciplined positioning (until Kehrer appeared, and that put an end to the discipline, as usual). Paqueta did some smart and flashy things, but most often lost the ball or passed directly to an opponent. Otherwise, I agree, credit to the goalscorers.